Tie
A tie in a quizbowl tournament has two meanings: a tie at the regulation end of a game; and a tie in the standings at the end of a tournament or series of preliminary games.
Tie game
If, after a review of the score and protests, a game is found to be tied, the game may either be declared a tie or go into overtime to determine a winner. Ties can be accommodated in SQBS (each team is credited with half of the value of a win), but are usually frowned upon for most tournaments. Overtime resolution is the preferred route, and is necessary for playoff matches.
Overtime in the NAQT format is resolved with a reading of 3 tossups with no accompanying bonuses. powers and negs apply. At the conclusion of the third tossup, the team with the higher score wins. If the game remains a tie, tossups continue to be read until a "sudden death" change in score (either "sudden victory" with a tossup or "sudden defeat" with a neg). Depending on the length of the overtime, questions are either read from the remaining tossups in the packet at hand or taken from a spare set reserved for that purpose.
In ACF format, ties are resolved by sudden-death tossups.
At the PACE NSC, three tossups with bonuses are read. This was notably necessary to decide the championship game of the 2008 NSC,
Most independent high school tournaments use the sudden-death method.
Tie in the standings
Ties in the overall standings of a tournament are a common occurrence, particularly in bracketed play. For seeding before a playoff round, breaking ties in win/loss records is usually not necessary, as the tournament directors plan a tiebreaking method in advance (points per game, points per bonus, head-to-head, etc). However, for breaking a tie that decides who enters the playoffs or not (or who moves to which playoff bracket), a half- or full-length game is played at the buzzer between the two teams (for several tied teams, more games must be arranged).
Ties in the standings may also occur in a tournament that is entirely based on round-robins, with no elimination rounds. Ties between lower-ranked teams (those that would not earn a prize) are usually left unresolved. Ties between top teams may be resolved by statistics, but games are the preferred method, particularly for the championship itself.
Tournaments that ended in a tie
- 2008 Erik Axel Karlfeldt Memorial Open (technically ended on bonus conversion)
- 2008 MCMNT St. Olaf mirror
- 2008 Ottawa Schoolreach League final
- 2007 NAQT SCT South (DII)
- 2007 Ottawa Hybrid Tournament
- 2007 TTGT11 Maryland mirror
- 2006 Ghetto Warz III